Arts and Entertainment

Taking a journey with Donna Summer’s songwriters

February 1, 2018 By John Alexander Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Singer-Songwriters Ed Hokenson and Joe “Bean” Esposito talk to the Brooklyn Eagle about their remarkable music careers. Eagle photo by John Alexander
Singer-Songwriters Ed Hokenson and Joe “Bean” Esposito talk to the Brooklyn Eagle about their remarkable music careers. Eagle photo by John Alexander
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Flatbush-born-and-raised singer-songwriters Joe “Bean” Esposito and Ed Hokenson played a large part in the career of five-time Grammy Award-winning performer Donna Summer.

Along with Bruce Sudano, Esposito and Hokenson wrote “Bad Girls.”  The song was the second single released from Summer’s 1979 “Bad Girls” album and went on to become one of the most successful singles of her career. It spent five weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and sold more than 2 million records.

Sudano, Esposito and Hokenson formed the group Brooklyn Dreams, which mixed R&B and doo-wop harmonies with the contemporary disco-dance music popular at the time. With Esposito on lead vocals, Hokenson on drums and vocals and Sudano on keyboards, the group’s first album, 1977’s “Brooklyn Dreams,” received critical acclaim, with reviewers comparing their harmonies to those of the Righteous Brothers.

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With the waning of the disco craze, the group’s label Casablanca, founded by legendary record executive Neil Bogart, was sold to Polygram records. Esposito, Hokenson and Sudano went on to pursue solo projects, while remaining friends throughout the years.

Sudano married Summer in 1980, recorded a solo album and continued to write songs with Summer including Dolly Parton’s No. 1 country single “Starting Over Again.”

Esposito worked with disco impresario Georgio Moroder on various projects including the soundtrack to “Flashdance” in 1983. His recording of “You’re the Best” from the movie “The Karate Kid” in 1984 has become a sports anthem. He also wrote and recorded songs with Frank Stallone for the movie soundtrack “Staying Alive” and currently has the song “Lady, Lady, Lady,” which was originally featured in “Flashdance,” included in the Academy Award nominated film “Call Me by Your Name.”

Hokenson has enjoyed a successful songwriting career in Brooklyn where he still lives today. He has also appeared in movies and television shows including “The Sopranos,” “Sex and the City,” “The Apprentice” and the “Dave Chappelle Show.”

All three admit that besides the music, they just love being together.

At the time of our interview Sudano was in Italy and working on the upcoming Broadway play “Summer: The Donna Summer Musical,” scheduled to open in March.

Esposito and Hokenson took the time to talk to the Brooklyn Eagle about their fascinating careers in music.

 

Brooklyn Eagle: Let’s start at the beginning. How did two boys from Flatbush get involved in the music business?

Esposito: I met Ed in ninth grade at Erasmus Hall in science class. I’ll never forget, it was nine o’clock in the morning, standing in the hall, and I said “Eddie, who’s that girl,” and he said, “Why, you like that girl?” and I said “Yeah, she’s one of the finest girls in the school.” And he said “Well, that’s my girlfriend.”

And that was it. From that day on we became best friends. And then I found out he could sing. It was almost like a magnet brought us together. We had him, his brother Louis and a couple other guys from Avenue D, and I was from Flatbush Avenue.”

Hokenson: I was born in East Flatbush and went to Erasmus.

Esposito: I was born in the Bronx but grew up in Brooklyn. I was just born in the Bronx, but I was raised in Brooklyn. So, we lived in pretty much the same neighborhood.

At first, I was hanging out with these really tough guys who were doing drugs but I wasn’t into any of that. So then I met Ed and his brother and the guys who could sing, because I always wanted to sing. That’s when I realized that was what I really wanted to do at 13 or 14-years-old.

 

Eagle: You originally formed a trio along with Louis. Is that correct?

Esposito: Yes, we played in a club called the King’s Lounge on Flatbush Avenue.

 

Eagle: When did you decide to go to California to work?

Esposito: Here’s what happened. I got a call from a friend of mine, Vinnie Poncia, who produced artists like Melissa Manchester and Kiss.

I had a record deal with him that never went anywhere. He eventually moved out to California and called to tell us to come out there. I told Ed I was going to live the dream. I was 26 years old and figured I could always come back. Eddie said he’d come with me.

Hokenson: We really didn’t have anything planned out there but I wanted to go. My brother didn’t want to go so Joe and I packed up a Volkswagen with guitars on the roof. We took the passenger seat out so one guy would drive and one guy could sleep. (Laughs) We got to Texas and we thought we’ll be in California tomorrow. Three days later we were still in Texas.

 

Eagle: Joe, you sang on Ringo Starr’s 1976 album “Ringo’s Rotogravure.”  What was it like to sing beside a Beatle?

Esposito: As soon as we got out to California Vinnie calls and says “I got a session, do you want to come sing.” He doesn’t tell me what’s going on. I get to the studio and I see (legendary Atlantic Records producer) Arif Mardin. Then I see Ringo Starr.

Hokenson: They were recording Ringo’s album.

Esposito: Then all of a sudden Paul McCartney comes in unannounced with Linda McCartney. Fifteen minutes later I’m singing with Vinnie and Melissa, and Paul McCartney and Ringo are watching us. And I’m thinking to myself, I’m with two Beatles! I’m never going back to Brooklyn.

Hokenson: I also sang on Ringo’s “Bad Boy” album a few years later.

 

Eagle: And then you formed Brooklyn Dreams.

Esposito: We met Susan Maneo, who at the time was vice-president of marketing at Casablanca Records (and would ultimately become Donna Summer’s manager). Bruce, who was still in Brooklyn, called up and asked what we were doing.

Hokenson: Bruce was originally going to come out to California with us but changed his mind at the last minute.

Esposito: So Bruce finally comes out to California and Susan invites us to dinner at her house. Joe and I were both trying to get solo record deals.

Esposito: Sue suggested that Bruce, Ed and I write some songs together and she would pitch them to Neil Bogart. So we did. We made some demos. Sue somehow got them to Jimmy Ienner, who produced Three Dog Night and the Raspberries among others. Ienner signed us to Millennium Records, which was distributed by Casablanca.

 

Eagle: How did you meet Donna Summer?

Esposito: We were at Susan’s house in Beverly Hills and here comes this flashy Mercedes driving erratically. Donna had just bought a brand new Mercedes but didn’t know how to drive. She comes up and meets us. I had heard about her. She had “Love to Love You Baby” but she wasn’t that big a star yet. As soon as we met she took a liking to us and we eventually became her group.

Hokenson: And we became buddies with her as well. We all hung out together. We started writing songs with her right away. She was originally from Boston, not from L.A., and she thought we were real.

Then her and Bruce became very close and were romantically involved.

Esposito: We wanted to play some small clubs like the Roxy and the Bottom Line, but with her we were playing 20,000 seaters. We released our first album, “Brooklyn Dreams,” and ended up opening for her and performing with her.

 

Eagle: Tell me about the song “Bad Girls.” How did you come to write that one and did you have any idea that it would become one of Summer’s biggest hits?

Esposito: We were in the studio and Donna said “I want to write a song about street walkers, the girls who work at night.” So Bruce starts playing the chords and Donna started singing the words “Bad girls, bad girls, talking about the sad girls…” We wrote the song in 10 minutes. But it goes on the shelf for maybe two years. Then she needed one more song for her double album. The engineer said, “What about that song, ‘Bad Girls?’” It became the hit and title of the album, and it was an afterthought.  To me, it’s almost like a gift from God. You just never know.

Eagle: You’ve both enjoyed success working in movies and recording movie soundtracks.

Esposito: I worked on the “Flashdance” album with Frank Stallone. I had the song “Lady, Lady, Lady” on there. I was supposed to sing the title song “Flashdance…What a Feeling.” They were having difficulty coming to terms with Irene Cara for the recording, so producer Giorgio Moroder said that if they couldn’t work it out with her I would be doing the record. At the last minute they made the deal with Irene Cara and used her version on the soundtrack.

 

Eagle: Tell me a bit about “Heaven Knows,” a huge hit for Brooklyn Dreams and an incredible duet between you, Joe, and Donna.

Hokenson: We played and sang on it. We went into the studio and she said I have this idea for a song called “Heaven Knows.” She asked me if I wanted to do a bass where I would repeat after her, but it didn’t really work. So she asked Joe to sing on it with her.

Esposito: Yeah, it was in the “MacArthur Park Suite” medley. Neil Bogart liked it and said it could be a hit. So they released it as a single and it became a hit. We couldn’t get arrested in New York, and suddenly we’re having hit records in California. “Heaven Knows” made it No. 3 on the charts and sold a million records. Donna was generous, kind and funny. There’s no two ways about it, Donna changed all our lives.

 

Eagle: What are you working on now and what do we have to look forward to?

Esposito: Well I’ve been singing lead for the Brooklyn Bridge, who had the giant hit “Worst That Could Happen.” I took over for lead singer Johnny Maestro who died in 2010.

And Bruce is the main guy behind the upcoming play “Summer: The Donna Summer Musical” about Donna’s life. Brooklyn Dreams is mentioned in the play and our names are mentioned.

Hokenson: They’ll be using about 25 songs from her albums in the play including “Bad Girls,” “Heaven Knows” and a song called “I Remember Yesterday,” one of the earliest things we ever sang background on.

 

Eagle: What is it about Brooklyn that means so much to you both and keeps you coming back?

Esposito: Being that I live in Las Vegas and I’ve been out of New York since 1976 there’s nothing like this place here. It’s unbelievable. I don’t know if it’s in the water or the food but I find that the people from Brooklyn are the greatest people in the world. I’m so blessed that I was raised here.

Hokenson: Brooklyn is unique. It has a life of its own. It’s the people. The accountant lives next door to the plumber; the plumber lives down the block from the doctor. It’s just such a mixture of people and it has this energy that you don’t find anywhere else. I still live in the neighborhood and I love living here.

 


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